Semiconductor technology has made tremendous progress in the last few decades. Contactless smart cards are currently used widely in many fields like transport sector and banking sector for identifying persons as well as objects. Smart Cards, also known as chip cards and IC cards, are plastic that contain one or more semiconductor chips. In most of the applications, the smart cards are contactless which means that the cards perform data transfer using radio frequency (RF) technology between the card and a receiver/transmitter. Additionally, dual interface cards can have both capabilities using a single chip module. In general, many different fields of application arise for smart cards or integrated circuit cards, for example in the field of personal identification (identity cards, access cards, authorization cards), in the field of data encryption (code cards), for personal use (bank smart cards, payment cards) and in similar fields.
Along with the progress of electronic industries, electronic products are developed toward the trend of miniaturization and multi-function. Accordingly, various package types have been developed. Electronic packaging refers to the packaging of the integrated circuit chips or dies. The materials play an important role in electronic packaging, most of the work on electronic packaging is concerned with packaging scheme rather than materials. The conventional approach to electronic packaging and interconnect has been to package individual integrated circuit (IC) chips into a single package and to attach these packages to a printed circuit board to provide interconnect between the individual IC chips.
Another approach describes a double-sided electronic module of a hybrid contact-contactless smart card designed to be lodged in a cavity of the card, where the cards are incorporated in a blank with a special manufacturing format. Said device comprises a unit for depositing and pre-gluing a protective layer on at least one blank, a laminating unit comprising means for pressing, heating and cooling at least one blank and a unit for cutting the blank into a smart card. The pressing, heating and cooling means comprise two supports placed opposite each other and displaceable towards each other in order to apply pressure on the said blank. Each support comprises at least one ceramic heating and cooling device comprising a stack made up of a ceramic block and a metal laminating plate. However, this method has high chance of damaging the components since there is hot or cold lamination step included. Moreover, additional capital expenditure and special equipment are required for laminating.
Another approach describes an integrated circuit (IC) film with a conventional packaging step, and, in particular, it need not be covered with any package molding material. The IC chip is directly mounted on a flexible printed circuit (FPC) board. The IC chip is disposed on the FPC board, and is bonded to leads of the FPC board and thus electrically connected thereto. Also, a flexible plastic substrate is needed to mount the components into the FPC, thus increases the cost of the FPC. Moreover, additional operations such as pre-lamination and lamination operations are required before the IC chip is embedded.
Yet another approach describes a method for producing a smart card module, the arrangement includes arranging a smart card module on a first carrier layer, wherein the first carrier layer is free of a prefabricated smart card module receptacle cutout for receiving the smart card module, wherein the first carrier layer may include plastic (a polymer). The smart card module includes a substrate, a chip on the substrate, a first mechanical reinforcement structure between the chip and the substrate. The smart card module can be embedded between the first carrier layer and the second carrier layer. The embedding of the smart card module can be carried out, for example, by means of lamination, e.g. by means of cold lamination or hot lamination, or by means of lamination and additional pressing. Additionally, the embedding of the smart card module can be carried out by means of pressing. The substrate (or the carrier) for providing a smart card module can be formed from a flexible material, e.g. a plastic or polymer, and/or have a corresponding thickness, with the result that the substrate is flexible. However, this method does not include embedded electronics. Also, this method of manufacturing cards by laminating is hard to do and only a limited number of card manufacturers are capable of doing it correctly.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient electronic packaging module and a manufacturing method thereof. This method would assemble all the required electronics into a module instead of onto a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC). The cost of the module would be lower than that of an FPC. Such a method would not need a flexible plastic substrate to mount the components. Further, it would not include any lamination step, thus reducing the risk of damaging the components. Thus, it would provide a business with the capability to avoid additional capital expenditure required for special equipment. Such a needed method would decrease the unit cost of a packaging chip. This embodiment would enable all existing card manufacturers to manufacture smart cards with embedded electronics. The present embodiment overcomes shortcomings in this area by accomplishing these critical objectives.